The oil and gas industry expends sizable sums to design cutting tools, such as downhole drill bits including roller cone rock bits and fixed-cutter bits. Such drill bits may have relatively long service lives with relatively infrequent failure. In particular, considerable sums are expended to design and manufacture roller cone rock bits and fixed-cutter bits in a manner that minimizes the probability of catastrophic drill bit failure during drilling operations. The loss of a roller cone or a polycrystalline diamond compact from a bit during drilling operations can impede the drilling operations and, at worst, necessitate rather expensive fishing operations.
Diagnostic information related to a drill bit and certain components of the drill bit may be linked to the durability, performance, and the potential failure of the drill bit. In addition, characteristic information regarding the rock formation may be used to estimate performance and other features related to drilling operations. Logging while drilling (LWD), measuring while drilling (MWD), and front-end measurement device (FEMD) measurements are conventionally obtained from measurements behind the drill head, such as at several feet away from the cutting interface. As a result, errors and delay may be introduced into the data, which may result in missed pay-zones, delays in getting information, and drilling parameters that are not sufficiently optimized.